Prophecy Approved Companion

There was no mistaking the animals with Scissors the oversized scorpion as anything other than friendly. Not only were they dancing, which tended to register low on the threat scale, but they all seemed overjoyed to see Squiggles. And no one who was happy to see Squiggles could ever be anything other than a friend.

“I’m so glad to see you!” Qube exclaimed as she hurried towards the mob. Wolves, birds, even giant spiders parted to allow her to join Squiggles and Scissors. “We weren’t able to get back into the Light Temple after we defeated the pharaoh, and we weren’t sure if you’d made it out or not!”

She wasn’t sure how they’d managed to get past the greeter’s riddle, but a glance through the still-thumping legs of Scissors revealed the rusted greeter was tapping his foot in rhythm with the beat.

Scissors reached out a giant claw and gently nudged Squiggles with it. Squiggles instantly latched onto it, climbing her oversized friend and clinging to his shoulder joint. Bending slightly, as if bowing to the Chosen One and his party, Scissors passed through the entrance and entered into Construct Crossroads itself.

“Well, this is new,” the Chosen One said as the mob of monsters spread out inside the wall.

Zincy and Slate, being the two closest to the gate, were the first to become infected with the joy of the dance. Slowly they started swaying in place, their forlorn, love-struck expressions relaxing into small smiles.

“So, looks like your spell might be more infectious than we thought,” the Hero continued, looking around at Sencha Bard and Definitely Bad Guy. “Either that, or this fella can cast mimic spells.” He approached Scissors, slowly circling the giant former Boss. “I don’t know which would be funnier,” he said with a sly smile. “Or more likely to make Cazza [snacks] himself.”

“That’s the Dev we met in the Light Temple, correct?” Qube asked.

“That’s the guy,” the Chosen One said cheerfully. “Man, he was totally wasted.” The Chosen One snapped his fingers. “That means drunk,” he clarified immediately for the party’s benefit.

“Thank you,” Qube said graciously. It was always nice when she didn’t have to admit that there might be gaps in her knowledge, for all the Hero kept reassuring her that she didn’t need to know everything all the time.

“It certainly appears that this so-called ‘Scissors’ has managed to persuade the local wildlife to follow it,” Definitely Bad Guy said, eyeing the animals. “More than just local, it would seem. Several of these are from entirely different biomes.”

“Well, if he’s used to being a Boss, it makes sense he’d find more employees,” Qube said reasonably. “What have you hired them for?” she asked the giant scorpion.

“I’d hoped there would be long-term effects to [The Bard’s Ballad],” Sencha Bard said, awestruck as he took in the enormity of the group following Scissors. The more animals entered the town, the more were revealed to be behind them, stretching out into the woods themselves. “But this is more than I’d ever dreamed of.”

Sexy Screamy Spider Briar rolled her shoulders as she looked at the normally hostile woodland creatures streaming into the town, then up to where Squiggles was happily dancing on Scissors, and finally back at where Zincy and Slate were now swaying against each other in a proto-waltz.

“Perhaps there’s another way we can get through to these constructs,” she said thoughtfully.

“I’ll take you apart piece by piece, you overgeared cog!” a vaguely familiar voice declared as Slate’s mother entered the plaza. “My baby boy’s blood is on your hands!”

“Ma?” Slate asked, his painted-on eyes flickering as he blinked.

“Wild beasts!” Slate’s mother, apron still firmly pinned to her stone body, ignored her still-alive son to stare at the menagerie inching their way into her town. But, rather than rushing to attack, she stood stock still and watched their dance. “What a beau’iful dance,” she said in an altered tone.

“There appears to be no verbal component to the scorpion’s communication,” Definitely Bad Guy said, fascinated. “There must be some other way it is conveying the spell.” He frowned, stepping closer to Scissors. “But then, it was capable of casting spells in the Temple, despite being non-verbal. Fascinating.”

“I’ll grind you down into dust, you rigid rock garden!” Mags, the metal construct mother of Zincy, strode into the plaza, coming to a stop next to her swaying daughter. “My beautiful girl will never become the world-changing genius she was meant to, thanks to your son meddling with her future! Oh, if she’d lived, she would have changed the world!”

“Mother?” Zincy asked damply, staring at her steaming parent.

“How did these get here?” her mother asked, staring at the intruders. Her coil spring eyelashes fluttered loudly as she examined the mob. “I’ve never seen anything like this dance. How innovative!”

“Ma, I’m not hurt,” Slate said, reaching out and taking his own mother’s slab-like hand. “Please don’t blame Zincy’s ma for anything. She’s gonna be my ma-in-law soon!”

“All you rotten robots will — Slate!” His mother, who’d managed to somehow avoid noticing the fact that her son was alive until that moment, gasped.

If the whole thing hadn’t been patently absurd, Qube would have been moved at the sight of Slate and his mother crashing into each other in a momentous hug.

“You’re alive!” his mother cried, clear pebbles trailing out of her eyes. “My baby, you’ve come back to me!” She pulled back and cupped his face with her rough hands. “How is this possible?”

“Ma, I was never dead!” Slate said cheerfully.

“Zincy!” her mother cried as she suffered a similar revelation at the actual fate of her child. “You’re not dead!”

“No, mother,” Zincy said, giving a misty smile as her mother carefully embraced her. There was a whirling sound as her mother’s arms suddenly winched shut, locking Zincy into a tight hug.

“They can see them!” Qube whispered, not wanting to interrupt the moment. “They’ve discovered that their kids were always alive!”

“I always knew you’d find a way to solve death,” Mags said proudly, holding her daughter even tighter.

“Why, it was that big bug that brought you back!” Slate’s mother said, staring in awe at Scissors as she released Slate from her grip.

“Ah, is this part of your death-defying invention?” Zincy’s mother asked, eyeing Scissors with professional interest as she too released her progeny.

“Hey everyone!” the maternal Rockie boomed, turning to face the main part of Construct Crossroads. “My baby boy is back!”

“Come, witness the genius of my daughter!” the metal mother called too. There were crashing noises from the distance as constructs both rock and metal came running into the plaza. As the townsfolk crowded into the plaza, the wildlife danced around them, mingling with the people in a complex weave.

Zincy and Slate, meanwhile, were bent on correcting the strange misapprehensions their parents were under.

“Mother, it was not actually the scorpion that —”

“I never died, Ma —”

“Wait, you’re saying that kid of yours brought my Slatey back with her bug? Maybe I misjudged you hunks of metal,” Slate’s mother admitted.

“Yes, well, it’s important to be able to admit when you’re wrong,” Mags replied graciously.

They were doing it! The two women were swaying with the infectious beat, smiling at each other, and they were putting aside their differences! All it had taken was witnessing those freed from their own restrictions, and they were able to transcend their boundaries! At this rate, they wouldn’t need the Constructor to do anything to fix them at all!

“What, in the name of all that is scientific, is going on here?”

The Constructor, summoned as if by Qube’s thoughts, appeared at the top of the plaza. He gazed out over his celebrating children, the two sides who’d chosen love over war, and scowled.

“Constructor!” everyone chorused.

“It’s amazing! My baby boy’s alive! And his lady friend brought him back!” Ma said, clasping Zincy to her chest.

“And this young Rockie has shown that he will nurture my child’s talents, even in death,” Mags said.

“These Travellers helped us come back to ourselves,” Zincy said from within Ma’s mildly crushing embrace.

“We owe them everything!” Slate agreed.

But the Constructor didn’t seem pleased by this peaceful resolution to the brewing civil war. Instead, he turned and sternly looked at the Chosen One, ignoring the festive dancing surrounding him.

“You must choose a side,” he said. “Their issues cannot be resolved without a choice being made.”

“It would appear he needs more time exposed to the effects of the spell in order to have his thinking expanded,” Definitely Bad Guy said thoughtfully.

“I well remember the lesson of the pharaoh,” Sencha Bard said, bitterness evident. “Keep close to your thoughts the fact that he may not be capable of change without severe influence.”

Qube didn’t like the way he’d phrased that last sentence. Or the look he shot at her.

“Everyone’s getting along!” she burst out. “He just doesn’t understand yet that there’s no need for conflict. He didn’t want his constructs to fight, so he’s sure to come around once he realises.”

She was a little concerned at the rigidity of his thinking. It seemed almost construct-like. But that was probably just because he’d been so focused on the conflict for so long that he was having trouble thinking outside the lines he’d set for himself.

“If he proves incapable of adapting, we shall have no choice but to destroy him and set ourselves up as rulers in his stead,” Definitely Bad Guy said far too casually.

“What?!” Qube exclaimed. “We can’t do that!”

“Our worthy heart is correct,” Sencha Bard gently chided the Mage. “That would just leave a power vacuum when we inevitably move on to complete our quest. No, ever since the pharaoh, I have spent countless hours weaving ways to solve a similar dilemma. We must influence his mind, control the narrative he tells himself, so that he can see himself as the person we need him to be.”

“That’s not much better!” Qube nearly despaired. Why were her friends so threatening sometimes?

“You’re assuming that they need him to be anything,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said. “He may have made them, but they have just proven that they’re capable of making their own decisions. Who cares if he thinks they should fight, or a side should be chosen. They can make their own decisions.” She finished her declaration with a slight bite to her words.

Qube nearly gasped at what the Hunter was suggesting.

“Are you saying they should do what the lava slimes did, and … elect someone to rule over them?” she asked, eyes wide in horror.

“Do they even need someone to rule over them?” the heir to the Thorny Crown said blasphemously.

“Of course they do!” Qube said. While Sexy Screamy Spider Briar’s suggestion wasn’t as disturbing as the other two’s, it was still a lot to take in for such a staunch believer as Qube.

“In that case, the solution is simple,” the Hunter said, shrugging her shoulders, her various faces still looking dangerously displeased. “Either the Constructor agrees to our terms, or they elect a mayor.”

“I agree to no terms!” the Constructor, who’d so far been silent during this discussion regarding the fate of him and his people, suddenly cut into the conversation. His foot was tapping along with the crowd, but he remained stern-looking. “My children cannot coexist, and I need a third party to resolve this conflict before they wipe each other out.”

“But they’re getting along just fine!” Qube protested, unheeded.

“There’s a third option, little man,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said, pulling herself up to her full height until she loomed over the Constructor. She reached out and delicately brushed the tip of her claw down his cheek. The Constructor looked up at her, nearly hypnotised as he seemed to register her true form for the first time.

“You’re an abomination,” he whispered.

“I am,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar confirmed. “Also a Hunter, a seductress, and heir apparent to the Forbidden Forest.” She leaned down until her nostril slits were pressed against the trembling man’s nose.

“And we are very interested in the fate of these poor dears. So we’ll be watching. And if you don’t allow these constructs the freedom to live their own lives, then an entire forest full of my subjects shall emerge from the dark woods, crack your puny defences, and feast upon your frail form.”

Her multitude of faces, child and spider alike, smiled. From her fangs a drop of green venom dripped onto the Constructor’s face. He whimpered.

“So you’d best behave yourself, hadn’t you, my dear?”